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Grace and Truth
(Jn1:14-18, 8:31-36)
God is the God of grace and truth (Ge32:10; Ex34:6).
He gives grace in truth and
He reigns with truth and lets it be known by grace.
Faith is being set free by knowing Him, and
The life of this faith is about willingly becoming a slave to Christ to be eternally free (1Co9:19).
While grace is freely given to whomever and thus limitless
Truth is law which makes it limited in its meaning.
For God is gracious
He gives freedom to those who abide in the truth.
Accordingly, the Bible chronicles historical events that illustrate this:
By grace, God warned Noah of the flood and
Commanded him to make an ark to be saved (Ge6:6-20);
By grace, God saved Lot's life from the brimstone fire by
Commanding him to flee the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah without looking back (Ge19:17-19);
By grace, God promised many descendants to Abraham by
Commanding him to give his only son as a burnt offering (Ge15:5, 22:2); and
By grace, God freed the Israelites from Egypt by
Commanding them to shed the blood of lamb before leaving (Ex3:10, 12:3-7).
The Law of Moses that they received consisted of
Commandments and regulations for worship (He9:1):
The commandments were laws while
The regulations for worship were for making atonement for
Their sins of breaking the commandments (Lev6:7).
The sanctuary where the stone tablets where placed inside the testimony and
The mercy seat above it reminded them that
There was grace even in the Law (Lev16:2)
Albeit that grace was not perfect for it was regarding the flesh and
The blood of animals cannot wash away sins of the spirit (He10:1, 4).
As such, Yeshua said, "Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days" (Jn2:19), because
Through the death and the resurrection of the temple of His body,
He would give grace upon grace (Jn1:16) and
Set men free by His law the truth (Jn8:32) for
He is the incarnate Word (Jn1:1, 14), the limitless God who came in the limited flesh, and
The truth is Yeshua Himself, His words and the Father's words (Jn14:6, 24, 17:17).
As He died, He said, "It is finished" (Jn19:30), declaring that He:
1) Willingly laid down His life and obeyed the Father's command (Jn10:17-18; Php2:6-8);
2) Judged the devil the lawless one who left his proper domain (1Jn3:8; Jude1:6); and
3) Redeemed all men and set them free from sin, death and the devil (Rm8:2; He2:15)
The Father raised Him up and Yeshua ascended to the heavenly throne where
He is eternally free.
The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of grace and truth (Jn14:17, 16:13; He10:29) comes to
Those who have been set by the grace of Christ and
Lets them long to be eternally free.
The Christian is he who
Willingly becomes a slave to Christ (1Co9:19),
Willingly obeys the law of Christ (1Co9:21; Jas1:25), and thus
Willingly limits his own freedom and does not use it to sin (Jn8:11; Gal5:13) since
While everything is permissible, not everything is beneficial (1Co10:23) and
He longs to be lifted up to the air and finally be eternally free
When the Lord appears for a second time (He9:28).
O Lord,
Let us all experience this amazing freedom that comes from knowing the truth.
Let us overcome the world and
In that day soar up to the air and finally be set free forever from these bodies! Amen.